Author's Note: This is NOT true full crossover with the Bordernds series, hence why it isn't listed as one. You need zero zip knowledge of that game or universe to enjoy this. The only things taken from Bordernds are Eridium (basically just the name) and some aspects of Sirens powers/abilities/etc. Even with those two things, major changes have been made. Eridium is a human-created material here and there never were any Eridians. Sirens are not limited to there just being six at a time…but the process for making a Stable Siren is known only to the military. A few 'bootleg' Sirens may exist, but they tend to be extremely unstable. Both in powers and mentally. Sirens are only female, for reasons that I technically have justifications for, but those justifications may never actually come up in-story. No characters from Bordernds will appear, save perhaps easter-egg style mentions for my own amusement. Technical details on Eridium, Weapons, Siren Powers, and other such are being complied as I go. I'll probably post a separate repository for them at some point, as I don't want to be like some authors who constantly clutter up their chapters with technical fluff.

  Author's Note 2: I've moved the events of Mass Effect forward two hundred years, in order to allow for a humanity that has had a bit more time to develop their own tech. Instead of First Contact happening in 2157 CE, it will happen in 2357 CE. This will not affect much of anything. It's only crified here so that the timeline I'm about to give makes actual sense.

  Author's Note 3: This first 'chapter' is basically a timeline on how humanity diverged up to the point of the start of the story. It can technically be skipped if you find that sort of thing to be boring. The TLDR version is basically 'human has energy weapons, a prolong treatment that lets them live to be 400 or so, and badass female spec ops troops that use powers not associated with biotics.

  Author's Note 4: As of posting to Scribblehub (Feb 2024), this series does not yet have lemons/smut. It will, eventually, hence the tag. But it's going to take a while to get there.

  ... ...

  Discimer: I do not own either Mass Effect or Bordernds. They are, respectively, the works of Bioware and Gearbox Software.

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  Timeline:

  Feel free to skip this whole section if you don't care about how this humanity got where it is. This is being published at the same time as the first few chapters. It can be ignored if you want to just get to the action!

  2020 CE: Up to this point, humanity developed the same as our actual history.

  2021 CE: During the Covid-19 pandemic, some scientists got really really really bored. They started doing random experiments by subjecting various metamaterials to utterly randomized combinations of energy. They were only encouraged by a few fun explosions! And then, as with many inventions throughout human history, they discovered something useful by accident. At first a mere curiosity, study of the new crystalline material they'd accidentally formed abruptly sobered them up from their explosion-induced high. They had, entirely by accident, created a form of crystalized raw energy that utterly broke their understanding of physics. They ultimately dubbed this material 'Eridium' and began experimenting on it.

  2022CE: Eridium turns out to be one of the most important discoveries of all time. Even a small amount of it can store stupidly huge amounts of energy. And when that energy is pulled back out of the Eridium, it carries with it a form of unknown dark energy that, when maniputed properly, distorts fundamental forces such as gravity…or spacetime.

  2025: After several years of development, the first papers on Eridium go public…as does a Battery Technology based on it. The scientists have gone to some lengths to minimize the distortion caused by withdrawing energy from Eridium, leaving the general public ignorant of that portion of its nature. Instead, the public simply sees it as the core element of batteries that can, conservatively, store nearly 10,000 times the raw energy of any previous battery technology. Abruptly, a lot of technology that simply couldn't be made reality for ck of the ability to power it, becomes possible.

  2026: The tech market has exploded. Electric cars are abruptly the new rule, instead of the rare exception, now having insane ranges between recharge. Phones that barely need a yearly charge are released. Dozens of companies begin working on flying cars, jetpacks…and military applications.

  2028: The energy crisis has gotten critical. Eridium still needs to be charged and people are consuming monstrous amounts of energy compared to even a few years previously. An issue that's only going to get worse as various militaries begin fielding protype mechs, exoskeletons, and energy weapons that run on Eridium tech.

  2030: A series of resource wars occur, seeing the first serious deployment of combat mechs, exosuits, railguns and directed energy weapons.

  2035: After tens of millions of deaths worldwide, several counties manage to get Space-Based Sor Collector Arrays operational. Eridium has made developing vehicles that can reach space retively easy, and has also solved the issue of getting the power back down from orbit. Large amounts of Eridium can simply be charged in orbit using massive sor collection arrays and then orbitally dropped back down to Earth.

  2040: The development of Sor Collection Arrays in Orbit slows the resource wars down considerably. But the bance of power has already drastically shifted on Earth. In a desperate attempt to keep things from getting worse, the various counties with Orbital Arrays band together and force changes on the United Nations, giving the organization considerably more teeth to enforce its will than it ever had previously.

  2050: Development of Stable Fusion Reactors, using the now-better-understood reality-bending effects of Eridium, are developed. Combined with numerous Orbital Power Pnts, this finally puts an end to the Resource Wars. The final death toll is nasty, eclipsing the total deaths of WWI and WWII combined…but the war never went Nuclear due to Direct Energy Defense Systems making ICBMs essentially useless. Fossil Fuel use has dropped drastically…though the energy used during the wars has pushed the Earth's climate nearly to the breaking point.

  2060: The end of the resource wars, the new teeth the UN has, and a renewed push into space has finally turned the corner on global climate change. With nearly unlimited amounts of clean power suddenly being avaible, a lot of problems are rapidly solved. The political situation is still rocky…but a hard push into space and the idea of colonization is used as a means to focus public attention away from tensions while things calm down.

  2065: The first Colony on Luna is established. Several bases already existed but were limited in size due to fears of micro-meteor strikes destroying any attempt at a dome system. The adaptation of a previously-attempted military Shield technology made the new project possible. While no one had ever been able to make the shield system small enough to put on even ships…it proved perfectly viable at rge scale. In fact, the rger it was, the more robust and efficient the shield was. The colony's area was thus built with a nearly 15km diameter shield. Inside which several smaller dome cities were established. Eridium's physics-warping properties were again tapped into to increase the gravity inside the domes to near-earth levels. A study was begun to determine long-term effects of this on the popution.

  2067: An engineer working with the Eridium-based gravity systems becomes ill. His veins begin to glow and, during an attempt to treat him, a bst of some sort of space-warping effect is released. The incident is hushed up and new safety protocols are put in pce. However, certain parties are interested in what happened. They isote a number of other people beginning to show early stages of the same problem and try to work out what is actually going on.

  2068: The Popution of the Luna colony reaches 1 million. With no sign of the general popuce experiencing negative effects of exposure to the Eridium-induced higher gravity, additional shield/dome colonies are built. Meanwhile, a massive shipyard complex is being built at Lagrange-4. Previous, smaller, high-orbit shipyards around Earth are deemed unsuitable for ships intended to move deeper into the sor system. The L4 Yard, named Project Waynd, is intended to address this issue.

  2069: Consensual experiments on individuals showing 'Eridium Syndrome' discover a treatment that allows the exotic energy to be channeled away from them...and gives certain people ideas. Project Odysseus is started away from the public eye.

  2072: The Waynd Yard is fully operation and begins building multiple exploration and mining vessels. Various probes have long since identified critically needed materials in asteroids all over the sor system. Both private and government backed projects seek to exploit them.

  2075: Project Odysseus produces something far beyond its original intentions. Using a small amount of cybernetics, some gene augmentation, and pathways of a mixed Eridium material impnted along a sort of tattoo like dermal fixture…the first Siren is born. For poorly understood reasons, it is quickly discovered that male test subjects destabilize during the process. Female subjects are able to reproduce the bst of space-warping energy that the original first Victim of Eridium Syndrome released unintentionally. Better yet, there are strong signs that the effect can be controlled to other ends. Project Odysseus becomes Project Siren.

  2080: Asteroid Mining has become a booming business. The influx of new materials has allowed the expansion of Waynd, the production of numerous Space Stations, and a colony boom on Luna. Expeditions to Mars, as well as several moons throughout the sor system, seek out new possible colony prospects. Popution of Luna reaches 5 million.

  2082: Project Siren produces the first individuals that the military deems ready for field use. Variations of their tattoos have allowed Sirens to exhibit the following abilities: Energy Bsts (which will ter be considered somewhat simir to the Biotic Warp ability), short range line-of-sight teleportation (called Phase Walk), and Phase Lock (which locks a target out of phase with reality for a short time). Other abilities are theorized but not proven viable yet. A very few Sirens begin operations in Bck Ops teams, to determine their viability.

  2085: The first Colony is created on Mars…and an extremely ambitious project to terraform Ganymede is begun. Theoretical physicists named Ricard Adams and John Lidan announce that they believe they have cracked the method needed to use Eridium for a working Alcubirre drive. It's been theorized since the early days after discovery of Eridium that this might be possible, and the announcement is met with enthusiasm in the scientific community.

  2090: Colonies of Luna have reached a popution of nearly 30 million and three rger colonies on Mars have rapidly grown to reach a popution of 15 million. Combined with the creation of massive space stations and habitats all around the inner sor system, there are now almost 50 million people living in space. Currently, each colony is attributed to an Earth nation…except the third Martian colony. It's entirely privately funded nature amplifies worries already existing about privately funded habitats. A United Nations space fleet of small police vessels is quietly commissioned. Up until now, allied forces have been handling such tasks independently. But they now agree that the potential for disaster is too high if conflict breaks out in 'independent' colonies.

  2091: Terrorists manage to seize a space habitat containing nearly 500,000 people and threaten to use it as a kinetic weapon against Earth. A trio of U.N. Bckops Teams, which include the only three fully-trained Siren's currently in service, lead a strike to recapture the station. They succeed…but in the process, the existence of Sirens is made public. Given that nearly the entirety of their teams except the three Sirens died in retaking the station, they are quickly made heroes and the public wants to know everything about them. The U.N. does its best to use this as a PR opportunity, spinning them as a new breed of elite and heroic soldier.

  2092: The first Alcubierre drive test is successful. Previous attempts…exploded spectacurly. For the first time, humans travel faster than light. In doing so, they accidently discover why previous ships exploded. The Adams-Lidan drive doesn't do exactly what they thought it did. Encasing the ship in a bubble of warped space actually sends it out-of-phase with our dimension, into what the geeks on the team decide to call Hyperspace. In Hyperspace, points in space are compressed, meaning that traveling at even a fraction of the speed of light results in reentry into real space having crossed real space ranges that would require FTL. As it does not subject the ship to retivity, they've effectively half-lucked their way into a valid faster than light travel methodology. They quickly set about studying Hyperspace and mapping safe paths through it.

  2095: A series of unmanned probes using Hyperspace are unched toward Alpha Centauri. It is hoped that at least one of them will survive and reach the system within a year. Colony and Space Habitat popution reaches 75 Million. The U.N. Peacekeeping fleet, made up mostly of Corvettes and a few Frigates, is finally officially given the task of policing the sor system. For the time being they are still badly outnumbered by nationally owned ships. More ships are quietly commissioned.

  2096: Three out of twelve probes safely reach Alpha Centauri. They scan the system for several weeks, before sharing data and attempting the return trip.

  2097: One probe of the three exploration probes manages to return intact. Scientists are startled to discover that there is actually a garden world in the sor system…and it has btant signs of pnt life. The announcement of this fact causes massive upheaval as life is suddenly confirmed to exist elsewhere in the universe, in some fashion. More probes are unched and construction on a vessel for manned travel to the system is begun. Improvements to the drive technology mean the new probes will need only one year for the round trip, including time to scan the pnet more thoroughly.

  2098: The return of the probes reveals that there is a primitive tool-using society of aliens on the pnet. Arguments begin about if colonization of an inhabited pnet is justifiable. The revetion of what seems to be fully sapient alien life rocks humanity. The U.N. security council freaks out and orders a significant expansion of the peace-keeping fleet, truly realizing for the first time that there might be others out there that could find THEM instead of the other way around. Those hoping for a colpse of religion face fault as most of the world's major religions shrug and point out that none of their religious texts ever say God didn't create more than one species. Something that seems to have escaped the notice of most atheists.

  2100: A manned expedition set to st three years heads to Alpha Centauri. It's purely observational in nature. Thankfully, additional probing of other nearby systems has revealed another garden world, slightly farther away…and with no inconvenient natives. Colonization efforts are directed that way. The system with the new pnet, tentatively dubbed Demeter, is roughly 16 light years from Earth. But improvements to drive technology make that only a two-year journey. Issues of communication are the greatest concern…

  2102: More experiments with Eridium have borne fruit, finally allowing the creation of quantum-entangled pairs. This enables faster than light communication and revitalizes a slightly fgging enthusiasm for colonization. Suddenly faced with zero g time in data transmission, the fears of becoming isoted from the rest of humanity ease. Spaceborn popution of the Sol System reaches 150 million. With the popution of Earth itself now approaching 12 Billion and the issue of communication now absent, the U.N. begins to start actively pushing for colonization efforts. The Terraforming of Ganymede, which has shown surprisingly amounts of success in the st 17 years, suddenly gets a massive infusion of manpower and funding.

  2103: The Return of the Alpha Centauri exploration vessel New Horizons is heralded with parades…and massive amounts of interest from the scientific community. Without QEC, they had been effectively out of communication save via a few probes, and only now is the data they gathered suddenly flooding the scientific community. A ship for a simir mission to Demeter begins construction, this time with a QEC on board.

  2110: Reports from Demeter have been positive and a colony ship with 10,000 colonists aboard sets out for Demeter. Headed and partially funded by Billionaire Victor Manswell.

  2130: Ganymede has become habitable, even if Terraforming is still ongoing. Colonies begin to be established. Extra-Earth popution of humanity reaches 400 million…and the existence of too many national and private armed vessels is becoming a problem. Acts of space piracy, funded mostly by dirty Mega Corporations, force the UN Peacekeeping Fleet to fire in anger for the first time.

  2150: Tensions have grown as Colonies grow ever more disillusioned with being tied to Earth politics. As there is now a popution of 500 million off Earth, violence is becoming more and more likely.

  2170: Several Colonies Rebel…and those rebellions are put down, harshly. It is revealed in the process that the Siren program has evolved drastically. While the process is still too hideously expensive to ever use Sirens in great numbers, Sirens have now learned to use new powers. Including the ability to augment their strength, regenerate, and create energy constructs. Special forces including them are used to cut the rebellions off at the knees. Unfortunately, this causes backsh.

  2182: Study of Siren regeneration has resulted in the creation of the Prolong Treatment. This treatment, which rapidly becomes mass produced and avaible to all humans in order to prevent riots, extends human lifespans from around 150 years to 300-400, depending on individual. Siren's themselves, meanwhile, are discovered to be effectively immortal-until-killed. Though, since few of them ever retire from active military service and there are less than a hundred of them total, this isn't really considered much of an issue.

  2190: Another series of rebellions is put down. But this time they had managed to build a fleet of their own and a lot of people die. Tensions rachet even higher and the U.N. actually tries to stop colonization efforts for a third new garden world that was recently discovered. It fails and their attempt angers the colonies even more.

  2225: There is a split in the military, with nearly a third of the U.N. fleet defecting, and a number of Sirens loyal to their home colonies do so as well. This time, it won't be nearly as easy to put down the newest rebellion.

  2250: The Frontier Wars have been raging for twenty-five years when another attempt at making a Male Siren escapes. Insane and bming the U.N., the Siren managed to kill nearly two thirds of the U.N. leadership and quite a few national leaders. Left in disarray, the U.N. Forces actually begin to lose for the first time.

  2265: One of the Sirens that went over to the rebel faction is more a scientist than a fighter. They redevelop a Space Gate based on Siren Teleportation. Building Jump Rings between sor systems, every few light years, now allows rapid travel between explored systems. This proves to be a major strategic asset for the Colonial Forces.

  2276: After an additional 26 years of wars and nearly a billion dead, the U.N. fractures. This leads to victory for the rebel forces, who then realize that they are outnumbered 8 to 1 by the residents of Earth and hadn't exactly thought through what to do about this. Out of the ashes, the Systems Alliance is born. Each major colony is now its own republic, as are the remaining nations of Earth. But all are United under the banner of the Systems Alliance. The Alliance facilitates trade and takes over all military functions, but only enforces a basic set of Equal Rights and Trade Laws, otherwise letting the colonies and Earth nations govern themselves.

  2277: Liara T'Soni is born.

  2278: Jump Gates are deployed for Civilian Use between Earth and the three sor systems now colonized by humans. Colonization, which had dropped off drastically for obvious reasons during the war, suddenly gets a massive shot to the arm again.

  2280: Just as things were calming down, the Prothean Ruins on Mars, previously missed by simple chance, are discovered. This leads to the Mass Rey being found…and causes both panic AND a chance for the Systems Alliance to step up. With proof of advanced life having existed before them, the SA is able to justify building up a defense fleet even as the new technologies in the Prothean archives are being looked over. Given the amount that Eridium Tech has evolved, most of the Prothean tech is deemed redundant or inferior. Though a number of applications to help improve energy collection for Eridium, as well as speed up real-space travel, are immediately noticed. Weaponization of element zero is basically ignored, as Eridium shields have long since been sized down to allow use by even individual soldiers. While personal shields can be overcome by enough eezo weapons fire, the kinetic barrier technology is utterly bypassed by several common forms of Directed Energy Weapons. Likewise, eezo powered FTL is inferior to Hyperspace by…a lot. As such, Mass Effect technology mostly becomes used for utilitarian purposes…and for interacting with the Mass Rey that is discovered near Pluto.

  2283: Sae Shepard is Born.

  2285: A Siren-turned-scientist discovers how to use their Phase abilities to interact with technology. In order to fully make use of this, they incidentally create an AI that's mapped off their own neural net. This actually, amusingly, goes unnoticed for almost ten years since the AI is stable and simply helps its quiet and somewhat anti-social partner with research.

  2290: The Systems alliance managed, with great difficulty, to keep people from exploring the Rey for ten years while they built up defense fleets. Since they had a very solid start in the form of the Fleets from the Frontier Wars, they manage a lot in ten years.

  Each of the Systems Alliance's sor systems is protected by a 1.2km Dreadnaught and a support fleet of cruisers and frigates, as well as carriers to provide a fighter/bomber element. Ground forces make heavy use of Javelin Mobile Ptforms. Fulfilling humanity's species wild love affair with the idea of giant robots, Javelins are 4-meter-tall human-piloted exosuits that have repced virtually all other nd-based vehicle ptforms, at least for military use. Though regur infantry units and defensive empcements are still important, Javelins have repced most armor/mechanized units and close-range air support. Each inhabited world is also provided with multiple heavily armed and shielded Orbital Defense Ptforms.

  The Sol System is defended by a much rger fleet, containing a trio of dreadnaughts, each of which has a rger support fleet. These ships also have a lot more pces they need to defend, though, leaving the Systems Alliance still a bit unhappy about being spread too thin. One dreadnaught is kept constantly at the Mass Rey, which is also mined to hell and back and has numerous defense ptforms built around it. Seriously, what sort of moron wouldn't do that? Not humanity. No sir. Aliens might be that stupid. But humanity knows a defensive choke point when it sees one. A few million mines is a completely reasonable expense to make sure they can hold it.

  2291: The first Expedition through the Mass Rey is made, nding in the Arcturus system…36 light years away. As the farthest human colony is only about 30 light years from Earth, the Systems Alliance is more than a bit perturbed, particurly when they discover more Reys in the system. Several of them. Proving definitively that this was a network, rather than a single instaltion. Realizing that the Arcturus System is a good buffer, they SA moves the 3rd Fleet, previously stationed on the Charon Rey, into the Arcturus System and begins building a massive space fortress called Arcturus Station. With all of their experience building stations up to this point, they go big and design the finished station to be 35km long and 15km in diameter. It will be built in three stages, and the SA insists that the first stage be finished before any of the other Reys are activated. This annoys a lot of people, but the recent discovery of another habitable world in the compete opposite direction, only 20 light years from Sol, distracts the grumblers.

  2293: The first stage of Arcturus Station is finished. The SA allows the reys to be explored. Carefully and mostly with probes, at first.

  2294: Having found no hostile life with probes and a few follow up manned expeditions…the SA did discover four habitable worlds. They reluctantly allow the Delta Foundation to establish colonies on the world's now named Eden Prime, Terra Nova, Amaterasu and Yando. They firmly tell people to be happy with that for now, having activated and explored two of the Reys in Arcturus. As only a psychopath would explore farther without exploring all the immediate reys, they vow to open Arcturus Charlie, the only fully dormant rey, once proper defenses have been built up for the new colonies.

  2301: Sae Shepard passes the extremely rigorous screening for admission into the Siren program.

  2305: Someone finally realizes that Patricia Thorn, a Siren Scientist, created an AI and new use for Siren powers almost ten years ago. After much consternation, the AI is proven stable, having been based on an existing human neural net. The process is analyzed and it's quickly realized that only Sirens can make this type of AI, at least for the time being. Better, mostly, is that the AIs in question are utterly loyal to their Siren. Suddenly, Sirens become a commodity outside special forces, many of them being almost shooed into R fields, much to their bemusement and occasional irritation.

  2306: Sae Shepard completes the borious process to become and train as a Siren. She starts the twenty-year period of mandatory military service that comes with the program.

  2325: Defense fleets, Orbital Defenses, and Colony Shields are finished for the four worlds discovered and Colonized via the Rey, as well as the one system in the other direction, with no Rey. That system, Shangri La, has a lot of valuable materials in it. It quietly gets a Jump Gate and a major complex of shipyards. As it's not accessible via the still-mysterious Rey network, it becomes the heart of a new military buildup.

  2326: Sae Shepard completes her initial twenty years as a military Siren and re-ups her contract. In doing so, she shifts from an enlisted to officer track and undergoes additional training.

  2330: Sae Shepard completes officer training and becomes a Jr. Lieutenant. With the push for more Sirens in R , the fact she already has an AI is noticed and she'd convinced to detour into a more technical track. Which she rapidly proves to have a knack for.

  2330: Miranda Lawson is born.

  2331: Kaidan Alenko is born

  2336: Ashely Williams is born.

  2338: Despite proving to be a genius in several technical fields, Shepard gets bored. The Alliance has long since learned that Bored Sirens are a bad thing and reassigns her to combat missions.

  2339: The final stage of Arcturus Station is finished. The SA allows the rest of the Arcturus Reys to be explored…carefully.

  2340: The SA freaks out when probes reveal that Arcturus Charlie connects to an already active nodal rey…which their probes detect has ships and armed stations not too far away. They send stealth ptforms to observe and will slowly start getting a picture of the gaxy that is awkward as heck for them. Mainly because they've stumbled right into the Krogan DMZ. They cim the Rey as unsafe, though they don't expin why. They double-panic when the Echo Rey ends up leading into well-traveled shipping nes as well, though they breathe a sigh of relief when their probes go unnoticed and no one pays attention to the actual rey leading to Arcturus. Unfortunately, that rey was dormant, so it's only a matter of time before someone notices it's now active. They frantically assign several of the new Siren-AI pairs to crack alien com traffic gathered by stealthed recon probes.

  Even with AI support, this will take time, particurly as they don't even have a baseline for what sort of codec the transmissions are using. In the meantime, exploration probes follow an active Rey from the Mkali Pool to a new cluster, discovering the pnet of Shanxi. The SA uses this new pnet as a distraction for the public while they try to figure out what the fuck waffles to do about all the aliens they just stumbled upon.

  2342: Shepard makes full Lieutenant…but ter in the year an Incident occurs involving a senator's daughter, a stolen scout javelin, a wedding reception, and a ludicrous amount of pancake batter. The incident sees her shuffled to working on Javelins until she's out of the doghouse. The fact that she technically didn't do anything illegal baffles many people for decades afterwards. She even paid for all the pancake batter, though no one is quite sure who provided it…

  2345: The SA has cracked the Alien Extranet and spent several years filtering through the porn to learn about this Citadel Council. Having done so, they…aren't pleased with what they discover. While humanity's popution has been booming, particurly with Prolong treatments having been refined to give humans an estimated average lifespan of 425 years, nearly all of these species still vastly outnumber humanity.

  Worse, the Citadel Species have a long history of horrific sentient rights viotions, a member near the SA's borders that practices svery, and big militaries. The only consotion is that none of them seem to know anything beyond Mass Effect technology. Meaning that, by the best estimates they can make, the SA's own military has a major advantage ton-for-ton. Even so, they decide to dey meeting these aliens for as long as possible, while building up their fleet and popution as much as they can.

  2346: Shepard is shifted back to combat operations.

  2347: A raid on Henry Lawson by the Systems Alliance results in Miranda and Oriana Lawson being adopted by considerably less fucked up people.

  2353: Miranda Lawson passes the screening to become a Siren. She begins the process of doing so.

  2355: Economic realities as the military buildup causes strain finally forces the SA to reveal the 'Recent' discovery of alien species. They carefully paint the picture of needing to know more about their 'newly discovered' gactic neighbors. Lots of people protest, but careful leaks of details here and there manage to keep a lid on things for a little bit longer…

  2357: Miranda becomes a Siren and starts her mandatory 20-year service with the SA.

  2357: The SA's hand is forced when a Turian Patrol takes exception to ships of the new Shanxi Defense Fleet mining the hell out of Rey 314, as part of the standard defense doctrine of the Alliance. Unfortunately, it's also illegal by Citadel w. Not that the SA cares, given that they aren't part of the Citadel. The Turians are dipshits and attack regardless of that…and lose spectacurly when the rest of the Shanxi Defense Fleet jump from Shanxi orbit to the Rey. A single ship escapes and sends for a bigger Turian Fleet. The SA, however, isn't having any of that shit. They've been preparing a surprise…and proceed to jump a 150-ship fleet, led by 3 dreadnaughts and a 3km long Super Dreadnaught built at somewhat ruinous cost specially for this purpose, through the Rey Network.

  In a calcuted bid to cause chaos for the Turians, they use their backdoor to the Krogan DMZ to quickly reach the Citadel…and make 'First Contact' before the Turians even think about admitting the incident with their patrol fleet. Before the Turians can say anything, they send a polite message asking why the Citadel Council has decred war on them by attacking the Sovereign Territory of a Systems Alliance Colony. Forced to admit what happened, including numerous viotions of basic first-contact policy, the very, very unamused Sarian and Asari members lean on the Turians to back down. First contact is established and the SA fleet returns to Arcturus. A single Asari ship carrying Matriarch Benezia, as well as a Turian and Sarian Ambassador, goes with them to begin proper First Contact in a less…adversarial location than on top of the Citadel with a Super Dreadnaught.